Monday, November 29, 2010

It has been snowing hard for a week now. We have been sledding, skating, building snowmen and riding behind the quad. Yesterday we spent our first day on the slopes. Although the base wasn't too deep, Schweitzer opened with some amazingly soft and fluffy snow the day after Thanksgiving.
We decided to take the whole family. It was Izzy's first time and she had lots of fun. Hannah, Paige and Maren picked up where they left off last year and we had a great day!

Look Dad, I can parallel ski on my first day out!

Here I am with Maren. Uh oh! Who is this crazy boy skiing into me? Oh well, I'm too good for him. I'll just keep going and beat him to the bottom of the magic carpet! That will show him that girls are better skiers! Slow and careful - that's the way to do it.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

We had lots of great plans to travel to Utah for the Thanksgiving weekend. We were all looking forward to dinner with most of my siblings and their kids, tickets to the Nutcracker, cousin sleepovers, putting together care packages for cousins on missions,humanitarian aid projects, bingo games and probably a late night game of Canasta.

Instead, we found ourselves in the middle offreezing temperatures,closed roads and six days worth of snowstorms in the forecast. We decided to stay home instead of chancing a possibly long and dangerous drive.

We were sad, we were blue, but we found lots to be grateful for. We were invited to Thanksgiving dinner with friends who also changed plans because of the weather. My refrigerator was empty, so I had to do some last minute scrambling to come up with some things to contribute to the dinner. I searched some of my favorite blogs and found some great recipes. We had a really yummy meal. Dawn's turkey was amazingly moist and tasty. Rosalie's rolls were delicious. Here's what I brought (can you tell which part of the Thanksgiving meal I like best?)...

From The Pioneer Woman came this great recipe for Pecan Pie. I think it’ll replace that recipe from the Karo Syrup bottle that I have used in the past.

I have always struggled with pie crusts. I have never found a recipe that works consistently for me. Recently a friend recommended this Pie Crust recipe from Martha Stewart. It uses a food processor. I have made it three times now - and each time it has come out well. This recipe may change my pie crust luck.

Saturday, November 6, 2010

I have always considered myself a social runner. Sure, my body can do the miles, but I have always thought that, mentally, I needed my running friends right beside me to get through the miles. I have had some great running partners. They keep me talking, encourage me and push me.

This morning I didn’t have any running partners. So I put my earphones in and took off. It felt great to get home after running hard and knowing that I did it on my own.